Alabama Democrats considering lawsuit to block tax credits bill

State Sen. Hank Sanders, D-Selma, said passage of the income tax credits bill on Thursday was an act of "betrayal and destruction." (Birmingham News/Michelle Williams).

MONTGOMERY, Alabama --- Alabama Democrats and others opposed to the school choice/income tax credit bill passed by the Legislature on Thursday night are considering legal action to contest the bill, which Gov. Robert Bentley is expected to sign into law next week.

“You just put all options on the table, whatever they are, every conceivable way to try to stop this betrayal and destruction,” said Sen. Hank Sanders, D-Selma, who chaired the Alabama Senate’s education budget committee for years.

The leader of the House Democrats said they are considering a lawsuit to challenge the hastily passed bill.

Henry Mabry, executive secretary of the Alabama Education Association, who was involved in weeks of negotiations on the school flexibility bill that tripled in size late Thursday afternoon when the tax credit provisions were added, said AEA lawyers were studying their options. He declined to give specifics.

“We’re looking at various legal remedies concerning this legislation on both the federal and state level,” Mabry said.

The bill would allow parents with children in schools designated as “failing” to receive tax credits to offset the cost of moving those children to private schools or other public schools.

“It’s the first step in the destruction of public education, because they take money from public education and help create and support private schools,” Sanders said.

Leaders in the Republican majority that pushed through the bill see it much differently. They said it would help families with children stuck in poorly performing schools.

“That’s the whole point of the matter,” said Sen. Del Marsh, R-Anniston. “And those others, who have been in leadership for many years, have never made an attempt to do so. And we owe it to the children and the parents of this state to make these schools accountable.”

Rep. Jay Love, R-Montgomery, a member of the conference committee that drastically changed the bill, said he anticipates a lawsuit over the
legislation, but believes the bill will ultimately be upheld by the courts
because it was passed by both houses of the Legislature.

The income tax credit provisions were added to a bill about school flexibility in a conference committee in Thursday.

The flexibility bill had been discussed for weeks and had been the subject of public hearings. It had passed the House of Representatives and then passed the Senate on Thursday before being sent to the six-member conference committee, which had four Republicans.

The committee met briefly, recessed, and some members left the room. When the meeting resumed about an hour later, the Republicans handed a 28-page bill to the committee’s two Democrats in place of the 8-page bill the committee started with. After a brief discussion, Republicans called for a vote and approved the measure, sending it to the House and then the Senate for approval. Gov. Robert Bentley is expected to sign it next week.

Ford said the deal was obviously worked out behind closed doors.

"They didn’t allow the two Democrats to be in on the negotiation process," Ford said.

“It’s a shame they had to resort to these kinds of tactics to get their legislation passed,’ Ford said.

“Everything they did was unethical,” Ford said.

Sanders said the way the bill was passed runs counter to the assertion that its intent is to help children in failing schools.

“If it was so good for children, they would not have had to do it in secret. They would not have had to do it in darkness,” Sanders said.